Rondo AG – based in Allschwil near Basel, Switzerland, and part of the international Körber Group in Hamburg – is conducting the world’s first beta test in the area of pharmaceutical packaging with the Primefire 106. The digital printing system of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) was installed at Rondo in April 2018.

“The trends in the pharmaceutical industry are heading towards ever declining runs and shorter delivery times in response to personalized medicine, increasing language and country versions and much shorter delivery times for medicines” said Joachim Hoeltz, CEO of Rondo AG. “Our production consists entirely of secondary packaging. Through process automation and close IT integration we offer our customers a just-in-time service and by doing so help them to optimize their own supply chain.”

“We stand for customized developments and for innovations,” said Hans-Peter Süßlack, business process manager at Rondo. “Offset printing has its limits when it comes to the personalization and run lengths of just one pack. That’s why we took a serious look at digital printing. We tested quite a few systems in the past four years. We saw the Primefire 106 at drupa 2016 and opted for this machine after various tests.”

The Primefire 106 is the first industrial digital printing press for packaging in B1 format.

“A decisive factor in addition to the right format is the long-standing, reliable and trusting partnership with Heidelberg,” said Jörg Oswald, director of operations at Rondo. “A stable customer/supplier relationship with a high degree of trust and a high-quality standard is very important in the pharmaceutical industry. The motto is safety, safety, and once again safety.” With this in mind, a development project for the Primefire 106 consists of being able to print custom serial numbers in order to prevent counterfeit medicines under the EU Counterfeiting Directive. This subproject should become reality in 2019.

The Primefire 106 is installed right beside a Speedmaster XL 105 in Rondo AG’s production hall.

“Both systems complement each other’s respective strengths, which in turn benefits the customer. The Primefire 106 handles shorter runs and jobs involving variable data, while the Speedmaster XL 105 is perfect for longer runs,” added Giovanni De Luca, director operations for Switzerland at Rondo. “Heidelberg’s extensive color expertise ensures that end customers cannot see any difference – a must in the pharmaceutical industry.”

Rondo AG develops and produces packaging solutions for the pharmaceutical industry. Production takes place in Switzerland, the Czech Republic, the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Worldwide, Rondo’s workforce of around 600 employees produces over two billion folding cartons and package inserts every year. Rondo is part of Medipak Systems, the pharmaceutical systems division of the international technology group Körber.